Animal tranquilizers appear in domestic illicit drug supply

More than 40% of the street drug samples tested in Rhode Island contained the animal tranquilizer xylazine. New analysis Graduated from Brown University. This is the latest sign that the drug, which has sedative effects and can lead to skin infections and overdoses, continues to spread through the illicit drug supply in the United States.

“I think xylazine has probably reached a critical mass where it can reach more places,” said Chelsea Schober, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who studies substance use and addiction. rice field.

Xylazine, often called “trunk,” worries public health experts. Because it can cause very intense sedation, leaving people exposed and vulnerable for a long time. There is no function to return toxylazine is increasingly involved Overdose deaths in the US

The drug was popular for recreation in Puerto Rico, and then began appearing in Philadelphia in the early 2010s, Shover said. For the past decade, she points out, it was largely confined to Philadelphia. In the last few years it has started popping up in other places as well. Massachusetts When new york city.

In November, the Food and Drug Administration issue an alarm It has been found as a contaminant in other substances like fentanyl and heroin, and warned medical professionals about the drug.

the new data is prevalent in Rhode Island likewise. A program called testRI—Rhode Island Toxicological and Ethnological Drug Surveillance Tests—analyzed 90 samples from donated drug samples. 40 of those samples contained xylazine.

None of these 40 samples were marketed as xylazine, most commonly mixed with fentanyl. This drug may be mixed with fentanyl and other opioids. extend the effectsaid Schober.

But people who use drugs may not know if the fentanyl they’re buying is contaminated with other drugs, says an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University and one of the principal investigators of the testRI study. One Alexandra Collins said.

According to Collins, many drug users and community workers in Rhode Island don’t even know what xylazine is. It was pretty uncomfortable,” she said.

Public health experts are still trying to understand this drug, which was developed for animals and has not been rigorously studied in humans. , says Rachel Wightman, a toxicologist and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Brown University and another principal investigator of the testRI study.

For example, a person treated with naloxone after an overdose of fentanyl mixed with xylazine may remain sedated. Naloxone reverses the effects of fentanyl, but not xylazine.

“They may start breathing again, but remain sedated,” Wightman said.

People can also become physically dependent on xylazine, creating complications for those who want to start using drugs to treat opioid use disorders like methadone. When you stop using fentanyl, you also stop using xylazine.

“It’s possible they’re going through withdrawal syndrome,” Wightman said. “We’re still trying to figure out how best to manage it.”

doctor too See ulcers and other wounds Because it affects people who use xylazine-contaminated drugs, part of mitigation efforts may need to include providing people who use drugs with information about wound care. “They take a long time to heal,” she said.

The United States has seen new drugs spread through supply before – most recently Fentanyl Synthetic opioids emerged in the late 2010s and are now responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually.

Schober said he didn’t think xylazine would do the same level of harm if it became a fixture in the pharmaceutical supply.

“It’s a very different drug,” she said.

But experts are still watching its growth closely.

“We’ve seen it grow exponentially,” Shover explained. “It’s definitely something I’m keeping an eye on, and I know a lot of my colleagues elsewhere are trying to figure out when it’s arriving and how big it is.